In yesterday's chat @baseball prospectus Joe Sheehan had some pretty dire predictions for the ROyals:

"This team will be among the top three teams in the AL in runs allowed. That, or Carlos Beltran will have 500 putouts. It's a soft-tossing, flyball rotation with more guys likely to have 6.xx ERAs than 4.xx ERAs.
The offense might actually be decent, assuming reasonable health from a bunch of guys--Gonzalez, Stairs, Sweeney--who haven't been too reliable. But the pitchers will put a ton of balls in play, and this isn't the defense to handle that.

865 RA
758 RS

Hopefully, the Royals will realize early enough that they can't win this season and be able to flip a whole bunch of guys. That's the best-case scenario. They will not win the division."

I'm not sure that the Royals will have one of the three worst staffs in the American League.... Detroit, Cleveland, Tampa Bay... and yes... those darling Blue Jays all could give up a ton of runs in the AL East. Ditto for the Orioles.